Jewish Voice for Peace - A conference on BDS is scheduled to take place in February at the University of Pennsylvania. University President Amy Gutmann has come under heavy pressure from groups supporting the Government of Israel, which demand cancellation of the conference. The Committee for Open Discussion of Zionism (CODZ) asks for concerned people to send counter-messages to President Gutmann, supporting the holding of the conference.

Decca Muldowney - Verso Books - French political philosopher Jacques Rancičre was due to lecture this week at Tel Aviv University, invited to Ariella Azoulay`s Photo Lexic Research Group, whose work Rancičre consideres "closely related to the exposure of violations of Palestinians` rights since the birth of Israel" (and which is, for that reason, sharply denounced by extreme right groups). - However, after being informed by the BDS movement that carrying out this visit would cause Rancičre to be denounced as "complicit in maintaining a regime of occupation, colonialism and apartheid”, he cancelled.

Max Schindler - +972 - "Rallying in front of the JNF’s sprawling offices in downtown Jerusalem, the crowd included activists from Rabbis for Human Rights and regional Bedouin leaders. Holding posters declaring their opposition to the forcible transfer of the Bedouin population, the protesters received thumbs-up from passersby and honks from speeding drivers"

Allison Deger - Mondoweiss - The United Methodist Church will consider a resolution to divest from the Israeli occupation at its general conference in April, in response to Palestinian Christians who made a call to churches around the world, communicating the strife of living under Israeli occupation. Now, 140 Israelis have signed onto the call from Palestinian Christians.

Philip Weiss -
Mondoweiss
"Following a reissue of the demolition order last Thursday, came last night`s fifth demolition. ICAHD Director, Dr. Jeff Halper, standing astride the ruins, vowed to support Salim and Arabiya in rebuilding their home. "We shall rebuild, we must rebuild forthwith, as an act of political defiance of the occupation and protracted oppression of Palestinians" said Halper.
Beit Arabiya has become a symbol of resistance to the Judaization of the Occupied West Bank and Israeli demolition policy. "ICAHD is as determined as always to rebuild the home, and endure in its struggle to bring about justice and peace" added Halper."ca

Majeda El Batsh - Google Hosted News - "The conflict will be finished the moment the Israeli occupation ends, and there is a full withdrawal to the 1967 borders and a Palestinian state is established," he said in Hebrew at Jerusalem Magistrates Court.

Nathan Stuckey -
International Solidarity Movement -
"They continued to shoot, then the soldiers on the hill began to yell at us with a megaphone, “Gazans are donkeys.” Gazans are not donkeys, they are people, but perhaps if you repeat a lie often enough, people will start to believe, people like these soldiers." - id

Romain Raynaldy -
AFP -
"The result is powerful both narratively and emotionally, as Burnat reveals the intimate link between his personal life and events in Bilin -- his brothers` arrest, the death of one of his brothers under Israeli fire, his own arrest, his wife`s reproaches, or the daily risks to film protests." - id

Robert Fisk - The Independent - The photographs and journal entries of the young activist Tom Hurndall – who was killed at the age of 21 by a sniper – are a visceral portrait of the conflict in the Middle East

Richard Silverstein - Tikun Olam - There is a brewing media scandal in Israel that has received scant attention. Let’s try to change that. Earlier this week, a fictitious settler group published an ad in Haaretz supporting price tag attacks. One point they made in their support was the claim that price tag attacks are civil disobedience in the same sense that Ilana Hammerman’s group, We Do Not Obey, is. She is the activist who began a protest movement by driving Palestinian mothers and children from the West Bank into Israel in order to take them to the beach, amusement parks, zoos, etc.

Ameer Makhoul - The Electronic Intifada - Yet the official Palestinian position on the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails serves to undermine their cause, which is a central component of our people’s liberation struggle.

Julie Holm - MIFTAH - There are now over 200 skaters in Qalqilya. Hip hop culture has been thriving in Palestine for the past decade and the youth here are doing everything from skating and parkour to graffiti and beatboxing. These boys are literally using the wall surrounding Qalqilya to show their resistance to the occupation in several ways.

Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News - "The eighth in a series of vehicle convoys from European and Arab countries to the Gaza Strip reached Gaza on Saturday, bringing medical equipment and vehicles for the disabled"

Moriel Rothman - +972 - Last week, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority (INPA) began work on its plan to construct a new “national park” in the middle of Issawiya, a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem adjacent to Hebrew University. Israeli activists joined Palestinian residents to unblock the road sealed off by Israeli authorities earlier this week.

Jack English - ISM - Upon arrival at the scene, the officers confirmed the legality of possessing both tea and eating utensils. Yet upon further discussion with the soldiers, the activist was informed that he would still be detained and brought to the police station in the neighboring illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba for interrogations under the charge that the activist had “insulted a public servant.”

Peace Now: Netanyahu`s proposal is a cynical spin designed to not have to implement the Court`s decision and to postpone the evacuation of the outpost for years to come. [The Supreme Court ruled that the Migron settlers be evacuated from private Palestinian lands not later than March 2012-bz]

Gush Shalom - Neither the Knesset nor the government have given a real response to the contention that this law violates fundamental civil rights in Israel, giving a precedence to the interests of those who benefit from the occupation and denying freedom of expression to opponents of the settlements.

David Shulman - Ahmad Muhammad is heavy-set, his face a palimpsest of wrinkles, his voice jagged and melodious. He lives in al-Rakiz, a tiny khirbeh just over the ridge. It wasn’t so easy to persuade him to come out today. He’s had many disappointments, and he’s not, I think, eager for yet another humiliation.

Anarchists Against The Wall - Police officer Ehud Jubani explained to Tomer that the look in Shai`s eyes actually means "shame on you". In front of the officers, the soldiers tied Shai up once again and blindfolded him. This time he was tied to the bed. In his attempts to alleviate the pain in his hands, he had to shift to various uncomfortable positions. As punishment for Shai`s handcuffs becoming loose, the soldiers strengthened Doron`s binding too.

David Shulman - The Villages Group - "I was born here, in these hills, sixty-five years ago. I’m a farmer, and these are my lands. We have all the deeds of title," (...) but, in the wadi beneath us settlers from Avigail have put up two black wooden fences, effectively claiming the field as theirs.

Eleanor Kilroy - Mondoweiss - `If we suppose for a moment that Habima were willing to engage artistically with Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land, how might the company’s politically and morally-conscious production of The Merchant of Venice look? Without damage to the text, Shylock at the end of the trial could be recognizably Palestinian and join a shuffling queue behind iron cage bars (like those at Israeli military checkpoints).

Aziz Abu Sarah - +972 - The anti-normalization movement plays into the hands of the state of Israel’s policy of separation. By refusing to engage and even on some level cooperate with Israelis, Palestinian anti-normalizers accept this policy.

Emily Schaeffer - The Only Democracy - These failings stem directly from the lax investigative tools and methods employed by the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division (MPCID). For instance, the MPCID has no offices in the occupied Palestinian territories, so without NGOs and other agencies, Palestinians have little access to the military justice system. Fewer than 10% of complaints filed by Palestinians reach the MPCID without the intervention of outside agencies.

Talila Nesher -
Haaretz -
"... your political positions are different and in fact in opposition to ours and therefore we cannot allow our sons and daughters to take a trip to Hebron, Shiloh or the rest of the sites and settlements beyond the agreed-on borders of Israel." - id

Ma`an - Bethlehem / Avi Issacharoff - Haaretz - Marwan Barghouti urges PA leaders to divert its attention to popular protests and an unarmed struggle against Israel, urging the Palestinian leadership to pursue its attempts at recognition at the UN - not breathing into a `dead body.`

Transcription provided by the ultra right-wing IAM (Israel-Academia-Monitor.com). Afraid that Algazi`s arguments were too compelling IAM provided, as an exception to their habits, also counter arguments on their site.

Merav Yudilovitch - Ynet - "By inviting Habima to perform in London, you are siding with the [Habima directors] in the debate on settlement performances, and you are taking a step against the conscientious Israeli actors and playwrights who have refused to perform in the settlements."

Matt Trueman - The Guardian - The [Boycott from within] group argue that the Globe`s programming of Habima`s The Merchant of Venice, which "emphasises the issue of xenophobia", is incompatible with Habima`s performances on the West Bank: "A theatrical performance in a settlement is by definition a performance to an exclusively Israeli audience, with Palestinians living even in the nearest village being physically excluded from any chance of attending."